Let Me Steal This Moment From You Now
by Lavender and Hay
Summary: Modern AU. It's Thomas' (compulsory) birthday night out. Baxley (and a little bit of Chelsie)
1. Chapter 1

**Right, so I was prompted to do a Baxley Modern AU. This is going to included quite a few of the other downstairs characters too. Let's pretend this doesn't include significant chunks of near autobiographical scenarios. **

By the time everyone realised they weren't going to fit in the two taxis they had ordered, they were the last two left on the pavement.

"It's alright, don't worry about us," Phyllis told Charles, leaning forwards to talk to her boss through the open window of the taxi he had just been pulled into by Elsie, "It's not far into town, we'll get the bus in."

"No, you will not," through the window Charles pressed a twenty pound note into her hand, "Go onto Woodstock Road and find yourselves a taxi."

"I'll be alright," she insisted, "I've got Joseph with me, after all."

"No, I insist," Charles, it seemed, would hear no disagreement, "If we have to go through this confounded night, I'm not having any of my staff traipse into town and spend the night shivering."

"Alright," Phyllis conceded, taking the money from him and tucking it in her purse, "Thank you very much, Charles. We'll see you there."

Charles nodded and rolled the window back up and the taxis pulled away. Joseph, who had been helping to make sure Beryl from HR got into the other taxi without getting her coat caught in the door, moved to stand by her side.

"Charles gave us the money to get ourselves another taxi," she informed him.

"That was nice of him," Joseph replied, "I didn't really fancy the bus."

"He said we'd probably be able to get one on Woodstock Road," she said, putting her phone back into her back and slipping the strap over her shoulder, indicating that they should make their way down the drive of Charles' house and onto the, as yet silent, main road, "I have a feeling he wanted to make sure we didn't just give up and decide to go home now that we've shown our faces."

"We couldn't very well do that," Joseph replied, "After Thomas was so adamant that we all go out for his birthday."

"Oh, I know that," Phyllis replied, "I think Charles just wanted to make sure."

"He's not exactly Thomas's biggest fan, though."

"You can say that again," Phyllis told him, smiling a little, "Personally, I think he's only coming out with us at all tonight because of Elsie."

"What do you mean by that?"

Phyllis' smile broadened just a touch.

"Nothing," she replied softly, "Just that he doesn't like Thomas very much."

"You and he went to the same university, didn't you?" Joseph asked a moment later.

Her expression stiffened a little, but she replied in quite a normal voice; "Yes, we were both here, at Oxford. I was a year ahead of him, though."

Joseph smiled.

"Just like now," he remarked softly, "You're always a step ahead of the rest of us."

Her smiled widened into a little laugh, and she looked a little abashed.

"Even if that were true, Thomas is still junior director, while I'm only a junior editor."

"Yes, but you've only been here a few months and I'll bet you're the one Elsie will promote next. What?" he caught a glimpse of her expression, "Sorry, am I boring you talking about work?"

She smiled at him gently.

"No, you're not, Joseph. Believe me, people don't say such nice things to me often enough for me to get bored of them."

"Well, they should," he replied.

She looked at him for a moment and then smiled, breaking out into a little bit of a laugh. He looked at her curiously.

"Poor Charles," she explained herself, "He doesn't even like Thomas, and yet he ends up offering his own house as place for us to meet before his birthday party."

Joseph smiled too.

"That's typical Thomas really," he told her, "He knows Charles has a nice house; he was probably angling for him to host the whole party, but decided it was best to settle for just the pre-drinks."

Her eyes widened.

"The what, now?" she asked him.

"The pre-drinks," he repeated, and when she still looked blank, "That's what Daisy called them anyway."

"The young always have a clever set of words for things," she remarked, "I just hope she didn't use it in front of Charles. I can't imagine he'd be too happy at the thought of hosting something known as "pre-drinks"."

He smiled too.

"You're probably right about that," he told her.

"Daisy's a nice girl," she remarked.

"Yes, she is," he agreed, "Rather a shame though. She gave up her sixth form place to be an intern with us, you know, and all we've been able to give her since is a job in HR."

"I suppose it's because people like me keep showing up and taking the editorial jobs," she conceded.

"Oh, no, I didn't mean that," he told her, "That's not what I meant at all. You're wonderful at your job, you're the best we've got-…"

"Alright," she smiled at him wryly, "One compliment was just about alright. But now I'm beginning to think you overdid your pre-drinks, Mr. Molesley."

"No, I meant it, I-…" he was getting flustered now, but she was laughing.

"Oh, Joseph," she touched the front of his jacket gently, "I'm teasing you! I was with you the whole time, of course I know you didn't overdo it!"

For a moment he didn't say anything. Just gradually took in the fact that she was still holding on to the front of his jacket.

She was looking at him closely, and he was sure she was about to reply when her expression suddenly changed.

"Look, there's a taxi there!" she reached out to him, gently touching his arm and pointing over his shoulder with her other hand, waving to the cab to stop.

**…**

They entered the dark red light of the cocktail bar together.

"They're over there," she told him, pointing towards the table where she could see Daisy waving at them from beside Beryl.

"You two got here then?" Thomas asked.

"We had to wait for a cab," Joseph replied quickly.

Thomas' expression was sceptical, but he didn't say anything more on the subject.

"Well, you're here now, anyway," he told them, "We were talking about going out afterwards."

"I thought we were already out?" Joseph asked.

Thomas did not disguise the roll of his eyes very well.

"To a club," he explained impatiently, "They do a good 80s night round the corner, would you two be up for it?"

"Please come with us," Daisy chirped in from beside him, "John and Anna have already said no and I didn't think there was very much point in asking Charles or Elsie."

"The cheek of you girl!" came the exclamation from Elsie, who had just arrived from the bar bringing back more drinks, "I daresay I remember more of the 1980s than you do!"

Phyllis smiled at the look on Daisy's face as Elsie passed two of the drinks across the table for her and Joseph.

"I'm sure Daisy didn't mean it like that," Joseph explained on her behalf.

"That's as may be," Elsie replied, sitting down and taking a sip of her own drink, "Still, it would be nice to be asked."

"So," Phyllis surmised, "That's me, you- Daisy-, Thomas, Elsie, Joseph and-…"

"Me?" Joseph asked.

"Well-… yes?" she replied, turning to him, faltering a little, "That is, if you want to. I didn't know if y-…"

"No, I want to," Joseph told her hurriedly, "Only I don't normally get asked along to this sort of thing."

"Well, I'm asking you now," she told him quietly.

"And I'm saying yes," he replied softly, "I'd like to go with you."

It occurred to her suddenly that everyone else had fallen silent and was watching them over their drinks. Briefly, her eyes met Elsie's, who gave her an amused look and then averted her gaze quickly in the direction of her cosmo.

"Good," Phyllis said quickly, "So that's Joseph too. What about Charles?"

Elsie let out a snort.

"Not likely," she told her, "You were lucky to get him as far as here."

"Where is Charles?" Joseph asked.

"He was with me at the bar," Elsie replied, "The bartender got him interested in some deals. You know what Charles is like, always one for a good bargain."

As he was their managing director, they actually did.

"What on earth have you got there?" Elsie asked him as the man in question returned to the table a moment later, bearing a tray.

"Shots."

**Please review if you have the time, I'd love to know what you think. **


	2. Chapter 2

I'm having an absurd amount of fun writing this. Probably because I'm writing Phyllis as if she was me. I'd love to know what you think.

Phyllis and Elsie exchanged a doubtful look before pushing open the door of the ladies' toilets.

"Daisy?" Phyllis called out.

"In here," came Beryl's voice in reply.

"Oh dear me," Elsie frowned as the door of one of the cubicles swang open, "Daisy, girl, how much have you had?"

Daisy was prevented from answering. Phyllis, Beryl and Elsie flinched collectively; Beryl, crouched on the floor beside Daisy, making a valiant attempt to keep her hair out of the way until she'd finished being sick.

"Daisy, I've got your coat," Phyllis told her, "John and Anna said you can sleep on their sofa and John will drive you home in the morning. They're just upstairs calling for a taxi now."

"Here," Elsie had somehow managed to find a paper cup and offered it to Daisy full of water, "Drink this and then get your coat on."

"I'm sorry," Daisy wailed a moment later, after she had had some water, as they all helped her up and began to help her get her coat on, "I'm such a mess!"

"You're alright, love," Beryl told her, patting her back gently, "I daresay we've all been in a similar state once or twice in our time."

Phyllis smiled at her encouragingly, tucking her loose hair behind her ears for her in case she felt sick again.

"Have you got your phone?" she asked her.

"Yes," Daisy mumbled.

"Then, I think you're ready to go. Do you think you can manage the stairs?"

Daisy nodded unevenly, and then, unexpectedly, blurted, "Don't let Thomas see me?"

Phyllis threw a quizzical look at Elsie as Beryl, her arm around Daisy, helped her towards the door. She heard Elsie give a sigh.

"She was rather taken with Thomas, when she first came here as an intern," Elsie informed her.

Phyllis raised her eyebrows.

"But Thomas is-…"

"Oh, I know, it's not exactly a secret," Elsie replied, "But try telling her that. I know we all did."

"Poor girl," Phyllis remarked, checking her phone quickly, tucking it back into her bag a moment later, "She has about as much look as Joseph did until you turned up."

Phyllis looked at her for a moment, taken aback. She had a feeling that Elsie would not have said that had she had a little bit less to drink. However, the fact was that she had, and so she simply swung her bag back onto her should and asked her, "What do you think I meant?' before marching out of the bathroom.

"There you are!" Joseph shouted at her, waving enthusiastically from the edge of the dance floor, extending his arms out towards her, "I thought you'd decided not to turn up!"

The club was so loud that, in spite of his raised voice, she barely heard him, and had to shout back in return.

"We had to take care of Daisy!" she told him.

"Is she alright?" he wanted to know.

"Yes. We got her into a taxi with John and Anna."

"That's good," he replied, "I thought she went it a bit on those shots."

"It's busy in here. Where's everyone else?" she asked him.

"Charles went and got a table."

"Charles is here?" she asked, surprised.

"Thomas talked him into it, when we thought you'd all gone," he told her, "Look, they're over there."

He pointed to the far side of the club, where Beryl and Elsie were joining Charles and Thomas at their table. They both, for whatever reason, looked decidedly relieved that someone else had shown up. Phyllis grinned. She couldn't blame Charles; this was not the first night out she'd had with Thomas over the years.

"Do you want to go over and join them?" Joseph asked her.

Having just thought of the previous dissatisfying nights out she'd had with Thomas- and Elsie's remark in the bathroom of the cocktail bar- she shook her head.

"Let's get a drink," she told him, "And then I think we should go and dance."

Without so much as thinking about it, she stretched out her hand for him and pulled him through the gaggle of people separating them from the bar.

"I love Kate Bush," she told him.

"What?" he shouted in reply.

It was very very loud, and just a crowded. She leant closer to him.

"I SAID I LOVE KATE BUSH!" she repeated, nearly blasting his ear drum out and pointing vaguely in the direction of the DJ, just to make sure he didn't miss the point again.

He did nothing but laugh.

"I know," he replied, patting her arm in a friendly way, "Me too!"

The club was getting more and more packed, and their contact, once made, was not easily broken because of an economy of space if nothing else.

But or course, there was something else.

She smiled at him, wrapping her arm around his neck, and he smiled at her too.

"I'm having such a good time!" she told him, leaning forwards, talking into his ear again so that he could hear her above the noise, "I didn't think I would, but I'm having a lovely time, because of you."

"I like you too!" he replied loudly, grinning broadly at her.

She giggled, leaning her forehead against his shoulder.

"That's not what I said," she explained in his ear, pulling herself closer to him again, "But that doesn't mean I don't like you too."

She tried to plant a gentle kiss on his cheek, but it ended up being not quite so gentle and nearer to his mouth than anything else when he was apparently shoved forwards by someone behind him. Phyllis, tightening her arms around him, managed to prevent him falling, though.

"Oi!" she shouted over his shoulder at the back of the offending man's shirt, "Mind what you're doing, will you? Don't push my friend!"

She knew it was probably too loud for him to hear her, but that did not stop her annoyance increasing when he did not acknowledge her and continued to dance boisterously. Putting her hand on his back, she gave him a little shove.

"i said," she told him again, "Don't push my friend."

When the man turned around, she was barely even surprised to see that the man she was on the verge of assaulting was Thomas.

"Mind what you're doing, will you, Phil?" he told her.

"Then you stop pushing, Joseph!" she told him, drawing herself up to her full height.

She was about to give him another shove for luck when a hand gently took hold of hers.

"Come on," Joseph murmured in her ear, "He's not worth it."

She allowed herself to be lead away to the sofa at the side of the club.

"I'm sorry," she told him sadly, reminding herself a little of how Daisy had looked earlier.

"Don't be sorry," he told her, "I don't mind. I thought I'd better stop you hitting him though," he added, "It is his birthday."

"I'm sorry," she apologised again, looking up at him rather forlornly.

"It doesn't matter," he assured her, "Don't think about it. Come on, you wait here and I'll go and get us some more drinks and ask the DJ to play some more Kate Bush."

Please review if you have the time. 


	3. Chapter 3

**This is quite a short chapter because we're gradually starting to depart from the poorly rehashed autobiography of me and moving towards what I wish would actually happen (potential massive overshare there, but who cares, it's Christmas) and I need to process it in my head. Thank you for tolerating me and my oddness. **

Joseph obviously had more influence with the DJ than she'd given him credit for. By the time he had come back with two vodka and cokes, "Running up that Hill" could be heard booming away in the background.

"I'm impressed," she told him, smiling, as he sat back down beside him.

"It turns out I know the DJ," he told her, "It's Gwen, who used to work on our floor."

"Is that Gwen who left a few years back?"

"Yes, that's her!"

"Elsie told me about her," she replied, taking a drink- she was suddenly feeling the warmth of the crowded club very acutely.

"She's a nice girl-…," Joseph told her.

Phyllis, though, was less interested in hearing about Gwen, and more interested in the man who was talking, and he obviously sensed it.

"Give me a second," she told him, finishing off her drink in one swift motion, "We should dance to this."

He looked at her with a mixture of admiration and alarm, his own drink still in hand. She gave it a glance.

"Are you going to drink that?" she asked him.

"Yes, of course," he replied.

He downed it and took her outstretched hand. Pulling him onto the dance floor, she turned back towards him, still holding his hand, pulling him into her arms as they began to mix amongst other people. They were pushed closer together by the crowd. Everything was converging on her at once- the alcohol that was newly filling her system, the reams of other people, the sound of the song- but it was not overwhelming her, it was making her feel elated, his arms around her keeping her anchored and stable. As she had done before, she leant forwards, pressing a kiss to his cheek, smiling madly against his jaw. He was holding on to her tightly, his arms well around her back.

"Kiss me," she murmured.

No one else was paying them any attention, they formed an island in the centre of introspective dancers and their friends. No one heard what she asked of him, except him. He leant his head back a touch, and looked at her for a second in the darkness and the flashing lights. She tried to tell him, as best she could in the confusing space, that she was in earnest, this was what she wanted, this was what she'd been wanting for a while now.

His hands cupped her cheeks and he leant forwards gently, kissing her softly on the lips.

**Please review if you have the time. **


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